That was what a best friend did: hold up a mirror and show you your heart.” Kristin Hannah has to be one of my favorite authors. It's clear how much research she does before writing her novels because they really transport you back in space and time. Even more important, her characters are POWERFUL, fully dimensional and relatable. It's especially so in this novel, which tells the story of two best friends growing up together over the span of three decades. This book resonated particularly strongly with me because it's a story of friendship and the choices you make as you start to lead an adult life. In the novel, one of the main characters chooses a family, while the other chooses her career. Much of the story is about how you can choose just one -- career or family -- and how each girl regrets her decision. Watching my friends get return offers from their summer internship companies as I fly across the country for medical school interviews makes me realize how many difficult decisions we will have to make in the coming years. At the beginning of the story, Kate Mullarkey is a shy, awkward middle school girl with a loving family. She is lonely and uncool, and her helicopter mother never leaves her alone. Her closest friends have moved forward to boys and parties, leaving Kate behind. Tully Hart was abandoned by her mother "Cloud" as a small child, and has been raised by her grandma. At age 14, Cloud comes back to retrieve Tully and take her to live on Firefly Lane, across the street from Kate. Kate and Tully's world come together just when they needed each other the most. From the moment they promised to be friends, they are part of each other's lives. The reader follows them throughout the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's. Together, they deal with boy drama, college sororities, finding a career, the passing of family members, and everything in between. The plot of the story is nothing special, but during the last quarter of the book, I simply could not put it down (I almost missed my stop on the train.)
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